The Mercenary
by heavyneos
Summary: Jayne centric story follows Firefly closely for a bit before taking a turn (may be Rayne latter) there is some cussing mostly in cantonese


(I don't own Firefly/Serenity or any characters within the show, also please forgive any grammar and spelling errors I am Dyslexic and even with spell checker it's difficult for me to see them)

'thinking'

"talking"

Firefly

The Mercenary

It had been less than half a decade from the end of the unification war and for the crew of the Firefly class transport ship serenity it was just another day on the job. Badger a middle man that made his living out of the hub planet Persephone had given the crew a simple job, the heavy transport Chang had been wrecked a few weeks ago and he wanted a certain item stored within the vault before the Alliance (wash your mouth out after saying that cursed name) arrived to salvage the wreck.

If there was one thing Jayne knew it was that he hated being in zero gravity, it was cold disorientating and deadly. one of the first things you learn after leaving the farm or home or whatever was to respect the black, Jayne had healthy respect for the black because the black cared for no one, it didn't care if you where a brown coat, a purple belly, a mercenary it would kill you all just the same if you didn't respect it.

The wreck was a tangled mess of steel plate plastics ceramics and electrical cabling as if two great hands had grabbed it and ripped it in two, immediately as Jayne saw the hulk it looked to be some kind of explosion but he disregarded that as soon as he moved within it, there was almost no scoring or obvious blast damage no metallic warping that would give away an explosion of the size to kill a ship that large, there wasn't enough radiation for this to have been a reactor overload or enough warping for it to be an implosion. But as they got deeper within the super structure Jayne saw more and more evidence of damage but not explosive but then he saw it hooked into the skin of the carcass a harpoon hook.

Reavers those demonic boogie men that hunted out in the black, when he first heard of them he thought it was just Fuhn Pi but over the years he had seen evidence of the attacks first hand, unspeakable evil things done to people and one Jayne had to end him himself the poor hwun dan, but he never thought that they could tackle a ship of this size let alone rip it apart like a fighting dog ripping apart a dummy.

"The Vault is sealed" the radio crackled as Mal finished, the sudden sound of another voice even over the radio made Jayne twitch. Mal had been a brown coat during the war and a better captain he hadn't ever been employed by, not that Jayne would tell the man that, but sometime Jayne thought he could do a better job if he was in charge sometime he doubted that he could do any worse Mal had some of the worst luck sometimes, though Jayne whished he knew where they had got their hands on their space suits, there's was armoured allot better than his even though his was newer with all the sharp twisted metal he could have done with some armour onto of the suit. "Ok I'm going to boil it" with a short puff of compressed air Mal turned to face Jayne "Jayne give me the sticky"

The sticky was a type of acidic gel that was purpose made for vacuumed demolitions; after all you couldn't just blow up something in space willy-nilly the debris could become a hazard to shipping, that lesson had been learned on old earth that was, the gel had a copper wire that lead to a 'detonator', the 'detonator' would electrify the wire and boil the gel activating the acid that would eat through the metal.

Jayne tilted forward slightly allowing his compressed air jets to do most of the work, he made sure to keep his eyes on the jagged and sharp metal all around him to make sure that he didn't have an accident, gingerly as his jets stopped him he handed Mal the devise.

Mal applied the gel over the rivets of the vault lock liberally, sometimes these things where thicker than you would think, he hooked up the 'detonator' and moved away if that Vault was pressurised and still had air within it the resulting explosive decompression could be deadly. Taking cover away from the vault the 'detonator' activated the wire glowed a bright orange before the acid began to eat its way through the metal.

"Ok we get the goods where off this wreck and back on the ship" Jayne could practically hear the smile on Mals face, but he knew it wouldn't be Mal or Zoe dragging the thing back onto the boat no that would be him. The only positive was that at least in zero gravity it would be easy to shift that and the money well mostly the money.

The vault lock launched off as the decompression did some of the heavy work, the lock glided passed Jayne's helmet missing him by mere inches.

"Full pressure" Zoe smiled "the goods must be intact" Jayne and Mal made for the door, it seemed like for once a job would go smoothly.

Inside the vault Mal's flash light illuminated four dull grey air tight lock boxes

"Looking good" Mal smiled Jayne allowed a small smile for once an easy score

"Captain we have an alliance cruiser bearing down on us" the radio cracked lightly Wash the slightly childish pilots panicked voice echoed through their helmets. Through his periphery he could see his two companion's body language change gone was the loose and happy go lucky stance, now there was steel running through both of them.

"Ta ma de." Mal mumbled "have they spotted us"

"I, I can't..."

"Have they hailed us?"

"If they're here for the salvage we're humped" Jayne interrupted

"If they find us at all where humped" said Zoe "thieving isn't exactly..."

"I don't like th..."

"Excuse me" said Mal interrupting both of his crew members "Wash shut it down now everything but the air"

Jayne knew that even with their genius engineer Kaylee doing it as fast as she could there was still a risk that the advanced sensors of the cruiser could pick them up at any moment

It was a tense few minutes as they waited for the ship to either pass them or catch them

"Wash they slowing down" he turned slightly to Zoe, Jayne knew that they where every bit as worried that there slightest movement would be detected by the cruiser

"That's a neg" Jayne let out a breath he didn't know he was holding "it doesn't look like they're interested in us we should be eating wake in a minuet" the three watched in silence as the ship silently glided past them, Jayne never could understand the design of Alliance ships they looked more like buildings from earth that was sky something or other

"Aiya! Huaile." Squawked the radio "captain we're humped"

"Prep the ship now" Mal was assertive but not panicking "we move these in double time" he nodded towards the grey containers, Mal moved with all the speed his jets would allow he grabbed one container before shooting off Zoe grabbed another and followed leaving Jayne with two that he muscled out and using his large powerful legs and his jets pushed off the hull towards Serenity getting in was the hard part getting out was easy "cry baby cry" Mal radioed back to the ship Zoe was right behind him and Jayne was gaining rapidly

"Make your mother sigh engaging cry baby"

Sometimes Jayne wanted to throttle the annoying clown but he would be dammed if he wasn't great at his job. Though sometimes he would have done it anyway because he could be so gorram annoying.

They reached the ship in record time; Jayne was barely through the airlock door before it shut behind them and again Jayne's feet had barely touched the ground before Zoe had sealed the airlock and reactivated the gravity, the heavy crates hit the ground with a solid thud the impact was so sudden that Jayne almost toppled and had to steady himself.

"Wash we're on go" Mal said over the ships intercom

"Hang on travellers" he replied the internal airlock door opened to the ships main hanger,

"Lets moon them" Jayne smiled as he removed his helmet

"We look shinny, Captain. There not, repeat, not coming about"

"Close one" said Zoe as she and the captain made their way to get changed leaving Jayne alone to move the heavy crates

"Anyone you can walk away from right" Jayne said with a smile as he finished moving one of the heavy crates into the hold "long as we got the goods I call this a win" before he moved back into the air lock for the rest

"Right" Jayne herd the captain mutter before walking away he heard Mal mutter something else as well it sounded like "we win" but he couldn't be sure.

It took about ten minutes for Jayne to get all four crates squared away and for him to change out of his suit, but as he made his way back to the hold he was met by the remaining members of the crew, Mal tossed him a crowbar.

With a little bit of effort Jayne had wrenched the lid of one of the crates

"Well, there we are" Mal smiled as the ingot bars of copper looking material glistened like fire in the light

"There awfully pretty" said Keylee bubbly as always

"I'd say worth a little risk" said Wash, though what risk Wash took Jayne would like to know it was him Mal and Zoe that were in the black and on the wreak he was sitting pretty here probably playing with his toys while they did the heavy lifting.

"Yeah that was some pretty risky sitting you did their" Jayne said as he watched Mal run his hands over the ingots and lift one

"That's right because they wouldn't arrest me if they boarded I'm just the pilot" Jayne saw Mal flip the ingot around "I could say I was flying the ship by accident there pretty underst..."

"Bizui" Mal interrupted

"Problem sir" Zoe asked ever the loyal soldier

"Couldn't say" he said closing the lid "we best be getting rid of these before we run into another alliance patrol" Jayne wondered for about half a second as to what Mal had seen

"What are they doing this far out anyway" he said as he moved the crate back to where they hid the others, Alliance haven't been this far out in the rim since the war, maybe they were fulfilling there end of the Unification declaration but Jayne doubted that, the purple bellies had yet to even for fill a quarter of the agreement originally signed four years ago

"Shining the light of civilisation" Keylee smiled again, Mal, Zoe and Wash moved towards the stairs that lead to the gantry and to the cock pit.

"That sounds good" Jayne said sarcastically

"Yep where uncivilised"

"Speak for yourself girl I am plenty civilised" he said as he moved a crate into one of the many hidden places that dotted the ship, she smiled at him before helping him with one of the crates

"Alright lets get these crates stowed I don't want any tourists stumbling over them" Mal said as he made his way in front of Jayne and Keylee opening the panel to reveal one of the hiding places on the ship

"We taking on passengers" asked Keylee great thought Jayne more idiots to get in his way and complain about every little thing how he didn't kill anyone was a sheer miracle

"Yeah, that's the notion, could use a little respectability on the way to Boros" Mal shifted the panel out of the way enough so Jayne could slide the crate inside "not to mention the money"

"Pain in the ass" Jayne rumbled

"No, it was shiny" she smiled "I like to meet new people they've all got stories" god she was like a bloody sun pixy or something

"Captain can you stop her from being so cheerful please" Jayne was starting to get a bit nettled by the constant sunshine, Mal helped Jayne move the crate

"I don't think there's a power in the verse that can stop that" he said striating up "though some days I just want to duck tape her mouth shut"

Keylee kissed Mal on the cheek

"I love my Captain" she skipped off to the engine room leaving Mal smiling and Jayne as grumpy as ever

With the final crate stored Jayne had to ask

"so what's wrong with them then?"

"nothing just want the money as soon as possible we need fuel and some odds and ends" Jayne could smell the lie but let it go it would come out later it always did, Mal made his way to the cock pit leaving Jayne to his own devises.

His devises being the weight bench set up on the other side of the hold, he would spend the next hour working out before he showered and got dressed in time to meet the rest of the crew at the airlock, and he had his gun Alice and his knife Gladys and a few other assorted toys on him

(-)

Jayne was adjusting his wrist cuff as the airlock ramp door open and dropped

"This shouldn't take long" Mal said to Keylee "best time for departure is about three hours" he pulled on his leather gloves, the air at Persephone was clean but smelled awful to Jayne whose nose was slightly more sensitive than most, he hefted his heavy green coat on and tried not to concentrate on the smell "Gravity supplies we're low on fuel her up" he told Wash who looked exasperated at his wife Zoe

"I'd like to find a new compression core for the steamer" said Keylee following the captain "ours is just about on its last legs"

"and I would like to be the king of the universe with a shiny hat" he said stopping to talk a second waiting for Zoe to catch up "just get us sum passengers. Them that can pay. Alright" Jayne smiled at the girl one mistake and Mal wouldn't let her live it down

"if the compression core busts were finished. Drifting"

"lets not bust it then" he smiled as Zoe caught up to them and they made there way off leaving a slightly less happy Keylee behind.

(-)

The entrance to Badgers den as Jayne liked to call it was inside a heavy crate container, that was half full so you could only walk in one behind the other, it was a good tactical strategy if the guard wasn't an old man with an old gun that Jayne could tell was poorly maintained by its look and the smell of old grease, they took a left through a corridor made by two other containers and a third acting as the roof, they took right and were meet by a mean looking black man with a large machine gun who stopped them just outside of Badgers office. He had a young girl early twenties maybe and was examining her.

"Yes" the old man holding the girl pushed her through another opening "your late" he said sitting behind an old beat-up desk in an old reclining chair

"your lying" Jayne could tell Mal was smiling

"what did you just say to me" Badger was playing the tough man, though as Jayne entered he had his eyes on one of the body guards and his hand dangerously close to his gun

"you know for a fact that we are two hours early it's you that's getting tetchy and saying were late" Badger smiled a little "you want to put us on the defensive which means something's gone wrong and it wasn't on our end so what's up"

"your later than I'd like" Badger amended

"well I'm sorry to hear that"

"if you got here sooner you would have beat the bulletin that came in" he lifted the paper as the worlds danced across it "saying rouge ship classification firefly. Spotted puling illegal salvage on wreaked transport"

"they didn't id us so it don't lead to you"

"no it don't" he said spinning a handle on his apple peeler "but a government stamp on every brick just maybe might"

'Knew it' Jayne thought 'they may as well be next to worthless now and by the look of Zoe she knows it too. How you gonna talk your way out of this one'

"oh. noticed that did you" he stopped cranking the handle "you were going to hand them over knowing that they was imprinted and let me spin"

"we didn't pick the cargo"

"and I didn't flash my arse at the gorram law. No deal"

"that ain't fair" Zoe said,

'oh looks like I'm gonna get to shoot something today after all' thought Jayne

"crime and politics mean that situations are always fluid"

'that's it no way I'm letting this Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze talk his way out of payment'

"The only fluid thing I see here is the puddle of piss refusing to pay our wage" all of Badgers men drew on the trio even the hidden man keeping the minuets of the meeting like some secretary reluctantly Jayne put his Alice away the odds weren't in there favour for now.

"it doesn't have to go this way" Mal said trying to cool everything down "you can still unload those goods so what else is going on here"

"What where you in that war the one you failed to win" asked Badger cockily "you was a Sergeant yeah. Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds balls and bayonet's brigade. Big tough veteran" Badger began to circle Mal assured that he wouldn't do anything "now you have a ship and call yourself captain but I think you still a Sergeant see. Still a soldier a man of honour in a den of thieves. This is my Gorram den and I don't like the way you look down on me, I am better than you a business man me roots in the community you are just a scavenger"

"maybe I'm not a gentleman like you with you very fine fancy hat but I do business we're here for business"

"then try one of the border planets there allot more desperate there" he smiled at Mal "though they may kill you but if you stay here the alliance will track you down I have that feeling"

"the wheel never stops turning badger"

"that only matters to people on the rim" he said dismissing them, Mal indicated for them to go Jayne could see the rage behind the calm of Mal Reynolds.

Jayne was pissed he knew he could have killed all those cockroaches and got there money but Mal was the touchy feely type when it came to cutting Jayne loose and letting the blood flow

"I don't understand why we didn't leave them all a head shorter" he grumbled "and I would have enjoyed giving Badger a new asshole in his forehead"

"we'd be dead and my reasoning is that dead men don't get paid"

"Can't get paid by crawling away like a bug I got a share in this job and ten percent of nothing is... give me a second here oh yah nothing"

"Boros?" asked Zoe

"too big Badger might have told them we would go there"

"you think Badger would sell us out to the feds like that"

"I think he would sell out his own mother if the price was right" muttered Jayne as they passed two alliance men who were giving them the eye

"the feds catch us with what we got we lose the ship" said Zoe

"not gonna happen"

"Sir..." she looked back at Jayne "we could just dump the cargo"

"no rutting way this is the first job we've had in over a month. And I aint signed on to be no tour guide we need coin"

"Jayne your mouth is running you may want to take a look at that" Jayne had just about enough of the snide comments today

"I'm about ready to..."

"your right though"

"I...I am"

"last few jobs where weak tea. We got nothing saved and taking on passengers won't help that much" he sighed and ran a hand through his hair "we don't get paid for this job we don't got fuel let alone parts and equipment. We should be dead in the water"

"border planets?" asked Zoe

"yeah I'm thinking Whitefall"

"Patience?"

"didn't she shoot you" asked Jayne

"a little but that's water under the bridge"

"what about Horowitz"

"he can't afford it"

"the Holden's" asked Jayne

"They wouldn't touch it" Mal said counting off everyone within range of their current fuel level "Capshaws are brain-blown, Gruvick is dead"

"he's dead" asked Zoe shocked

"town was hit by Reveres they burned it to the ground"

"I aint going near Reveres territory them people aint human" Mal cut Jayne off

"Whitefall is the closest and safest" Mal said "plus she might just need it"

"I don't trust that old crone" spat Jayne

"I'm not saying it's gonna be easy. And we have no choice" Mal said as they came in sight of the ship "we just gotta keep our heads down and eyes open and pray for no more surprises"

As they approached the ship they could see that Keylee had done her job and got a fair few passengers, one a ferrety looking man clutching a rucksack to his chest like it was his whole world witch it probably was out here people didn't have allot not even enough to steel.

As they reached the ramp Wash drove past them on the mule with a large crate container that Jayne just knew he would have to shift so he took his heavy jacket off and got ready for some heavy lifting

"Please be careful with that"

'Yeah' Jayne thought 'I'm gonna play rutting football with it for a while' he scoffed as he made his way into the hold his jacket under his arm leaving the captain to play gracious host of whatever

"Wash little help" he said tapping the red head on the shoulder, Jayne didn't like this situation having passengers and illegal cargo together on the same ship was just as dangerous as loading fuel and munitions on a ship at the same time it was a disaster waiting to happen which means Jayne is gonna have to move his weight bench in front of the panel as a security precaution.

As Jayne grabbed the crate he felt uncomfortable, his kill sense was tingling and something was itching in his brain 'this one has taken to the treatment the well' Jayne clutched his head in his hands 'excellent up the dosage let's see how much he can take'

"Jayne" Wash snapped his fingers in front of the larger man's face to get him to focus "Jayne you ok"

"I'm fine have a head ache is all"

"You sure"

"Yeah let's just get this rutting thing shifted" grabbing the crate again didn't appeal much to Jayne but he had a job to do, it wasn't as heavy as it looked but it was significantly colder than Jayne was expecting and the feeling of vibration lead Jayne to believe that this was some kind of freezer crate.

As soon as the crate was secured Wash left to take off, Mal was probably playing tour guide it Have Jayne the chance to move a few crates around and put his weight equipment in place to act as guard over the stolen goods.

By the time Mal came back into the hold with the passengers Jayne was already starting his third set he gave the Captain a nod and continued hefting the weight, he would make sure that the bench always had the full weight on it at as long as there were passengers onboard.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the orange dress that Inara had gone off in, she was a high-class piece of trim and expensive it would cost Jayne five years worth of coin to afford a whore like her. Almost not worth it in Jayne's opinion besides a core whore would look down on a rim boy like him he didn't have the 'breeding' as if that meant puk gai meant anything in the black, rich or poor if you got the gun you run the show.

Lunch later that evening was something of a large affaire, it seemed like Keylee was showing off her skills not that Jayne was complaining he was enjoying the grub despite the Sheppard stopping to say grace

"Dose it happen often" asked one of the passengers, Jayne had yet to learn or care what their names are "the government commandeering your ship telling you where to go" oh grate thought Jayne asking Mal about the government is a sure fire way to get shot.

"It's what governments are for" Mal replied eating another chunk of food "getting in men's way

"That's good though if the supplies are needed" said the ferrety looking one

"We just happy to be doing good works" Jayne replied

"I heard that the border planets and moons are in bad shape" Gorram this ferret didn't know when to shut up and eat, it was like he was asking to get hit or something "plagues, famine all manner of awfulness"

"Some of that is exaggerated and some of it isn't" replied Zoe "all those moons just like the central planets there as close to earth that was as we can make them"

"But once the terraforming is done the Alliance dumps settlers on them with nothing but the clothes on their backs and whatever meagre possessions they own, they give them blankets hatchets and maybe, maybe a herd of cattle some make it some die"

'Ah Mal sure knows how to liven up a conversation' thought Jayne

"Then I guess its good where helping them then" said the other passenger

'There is something off about this one' thought Jayne looking the

"Your a doctor right?" asked Keylee

'Great a scholar the type what looks down on real folk who work real jobs' he thought "people who work with their hands like men"

"Yes that's right" he said using a napkin to wipe his mouth "I was a trauma surgeon on Osiris and capital city

Now Jayne was sure there was something up with this man those doctors where on more money a day than Jayne made in a year so why would some high paying doctor type come out into the sticks.

"Long way from here" said Mal

'No puk gai, Jayne thought looking over the man

"You seem so young"

Dam Keylee keep you libido in check

"You look pretty young to be a ships mechanic"

Oh grate now the flirting starts

"Machines just got workings and they speak to me"

Oh Buda I'm gonna be sick

"That's a rare gift"

Now they have the preacher doing it

"Well, not like being a doctor" she smiled to the doctor "helping fix people that's important"

That's it I'm stopping this crap right now he chucked mentally

"Keylee here just wishes you was a gynaecologist"

Ha that got them to shut up

"Jayne you will keep a civil tong in that mouth or I will sew it shut" he looked up from his plate "understood"

"You don't pay me enough to talk pretty" 'and I would love to see you try to sew anything, "just because Keylee is all hot for the doct..."

"Walk away from this table right now"

'God dam he just did not' Jayne could feel the rage bubble up his throat like a bile he could take a shot at the Captain but Zoe would intervene and two against one weren't fair odds, the preacher looked like he could handle himself so he would join the captain most like he could take the captain alone but Zoe was brutal bitch. Jayne just decided to grab more food and leave it would be easier that starting something that maybe he couldn't finish.

"What do you pay him for" asked the doctor as Jayne left through the door 'killing' thought Jayne as he made his way to his bunk to finish his meal in peace away from lovey-dovey nonsense.

(-)

It wasn't until the next day that Jayne had ended his self imposed exile in his bunk with an empty plate and full belly but still in a dark mood, he had already gone over the list of ways to kill everyone and take the ship for his self, each had problems but each was doable.

He dumped his plate into the sink and began to clean it when he heard a voice

"Simon Tam" it was the ferret "you are bound by law"

'A gorram fed' every evil desire that Jayne had wanted to do for the past few hours came cascading back to him. A wicked evil grin spread across his face as he made his way to the door that connected the cargo hold to the livening aria of the ship the fed was standing with his back to the door the utter fool.

"Get on the ground now" barked the ferret "you are all culpable for transporting this fugitive across planetary lines"

Jayne cocked his fist back he was going to enjoy this

"There's an Alliance cruiser enroot and will be here in twenty minutes"

"What is..." bang! the fool had shot his gun at the voice it was

"Keylee" shouted Inara

Wham! Jayne hit the ferret fed in the back of the head sending him stumbling towards the Sheppard who smacked him down with a palm thrust to the face knocking the fed on his back; Jayne had begun to pull Alice from her holster but the Sheppard stepped in front of him.

"You are not killing this man" he spoke with authority

"No I'm not" Jayne agreed he had better plans for this one " not right away" he had a whole bible of torture for him first and if his skill was still as refined as it was the last time he used it he could make it last days

"He is no threat"

"Move" Jayne aint never killed a preacher afore but if this one didn't move he was gonna be his first

"Not gonna happen" Jayne pointed Alice right between the priests eyes

"I aint playing preacher" he began to apply pressure to her trigger more than willing to go through with his threat

"Jayne!" he released the trigger and looked up Zoe had cocked her sawn off rifle pointed at the unconscious fed "just tie him up" again refused his fun Jayne begrudgingly lowered his gun and went for rope.

"You just gonna let her die"

"Yes"

Jayne couldn't hear the rest be he saw Mal tell Zoe to change course they then took Keylee away.

"If she dies preacher" Jayne mumbled walking past the man "he will follow shortly thereafter" he then looked the man in the eye "then you" Jayne tied the ropes as tightly as he could without killing the man he then hefted the ferret up over his shoulder like a sack and took him to the civilian cell and threw him in with all the care a man would a trash bag he made his way to the gantry next to the infirmary as not to disturb the doctor from his urgent task

"I want to find out what's going on here" he herd Inara through the window

"Me too" he saw Mal stop off towards the hold with the Doctor behind him

Jayne caught up with them and locked the doctor in a loose sleeper hold, well loose by Jayne standards; he lifted the doctor off his feet to make sure the little twit couldn't do anything

"Where's the fed" said Mal not even braking step

"Not where I'd like him but secure, the Sheppard is with him. Seems to believe that he is not safe alone with me"

Mal smiled as he got to the crate container he popped two latches and flipped a large throttle switch to pop it open, the crate hissed and cold vapour rushed out.

'Knew it was a fridge box' Jayne thought 'maybe it's got some drugs in it, that doctor don't look the type to steal organs so its gotta be drugs"

"Well let's see what a man like you would kill for" Mal kicked the door open, curiosity got the better of Jayne and he released the doctor.

'The crate was quite large so its gotta be full of drugs'

Mal wafted the Vapour away as best he could then looked up at the Doctor, Jayne could see the indigent look behind his eyes

"Huh" the doctor tried to move forward but Jayne grabbed the man

"I need to check her vitals" he said Jayne slightly shocked at that loosened his grip slightly the man burst out of his grip heading straight to the box

"Oh is that what they call it" he spat back at the doctor

"It's too soon the shock might kill her"

"The shock of what waking up" Mal spat as the doctor passed him "finding out she's a bed warmer to a border Barron. Oh I'm sorry was this one fore you was it love at first..."

The girl woke with a scream shocking Mal out of his rhetoric, she crawled out of the box shivering and trying to hide her naked body from around her.

"Simon" she shrieked he clutched her head

"its ok I'm here, I'm here" he hugged her tightly

"What the hell is this?" Mal was genuinely confused, no sex slave would react like that they would try to scream and run not accept and hug.

"This is my sister"

"Dam I didn't see that coming" muttered Jayne

(-)

The doctor wove a tail of sorrow and woe that would bring a tear to the eye

"That's quite a story son" said the Sheppard

'I don't think even he believes that yarn'

"That's nice and all but uh, I got better things to do than sit around and swop sob storeys"

"Jayne is right and we have a job to do" said Mal as he crossed his arms "which is made allot more difficult with the trouble that you have dumped on us"

"I never thought"

"No I don't imagine you did" Mal cut off "we have a kidnapped fed and a cruiser chasing us to deal with and Keylee..."

"How much do they know" asked Zoe to her husband, the red headed pilot rubbed his hands together

"I killed it quick but I'm not sure what he sent"

"Yeah, it could be he sent just our names or it could be that he sent full profiles we don't know" Mal said looking at Inara he knew she wouldn't let him or Mal kill the doctor "and until he wakes up we won't know"

'Maybe Mal would let me cut it out of him'

"So what do we do" He saw Mal look at Inara again

"The job"

'Dam maybe he won't have to know ifin I don't make it obvious'

"We finish the job with Patience at Whitefall then we get out and keep flying"

"What about us" asked the Doctor?

'What about you, you pencil necked jack ass"

"If Kaylee pulls through you both get off at Whitefall"

"And if she doesn't"

"How long can you hold your breath?" asked Jayne

"That be murder"

"Boy made his decision"

"He didn't shoot her" defended Inara

"No but somebody else did and I'm wondering when I get to deal with him" Jayne took another swig of the coffee "he can ID us"

"Kill a Fed are you stupider than you look"

"If you want to throw me out the airlock fine but River is not part of this"

"Can we vote on the whole murder thing"

"This isn't the town hall there will be no voting on anything what I says goes"

"This is crazy"

"I think were beyond that now sir"

Everyone began to weigh in on the matter filling the room with a cacophony on conflicting voices all arguing over the Fed the Tams and everything else

"Ta ma de! Nimen de bizui!" Mal shouted "the way it is, is the way is, we all play the hand we're dealt and this is ours"

"Mal you know that they wouldn't last a day on Whitefall, you throw them out and I'm leaving too"

'grate she has Mal by the balls where gonna be stuck with these two'

"it might be best you do" Mal said looking her in the eye "you aint apart of this business"

'oh now its getting interesting' Jayne smiled as Mal left the room the "good" doctor following close behind

"what business is that exactly" Jayne got up and headed to the door he wanted to see this, the Captain was just at the point of violence and Jayne couldn't wait to see that "I'm a dead man I can't know"

'your gonna be dead a mite bit quicker now doc'

"is it gold, drugs, just what is your business captain, what makes you so scared of the alliance"

"you don't want to walk this road boy"

"so your not afraid? I already know you would sell me down the river for a pat on the head"

'oh last mistake boy you couldn't be any more dead than you are now'

"hell you should be working for them you fit there profile"

'oh seems I was wrong ' he didn't finish before Mal had hammered the doctor a cross the chin, the doctor hit the deck hard his eyes flashing with fear

"ha, saw that coming" Jayne put his mug back in the sink and took off after Mal.

(-)

The civilian cell was a stripped down version of the standard crew quarters on the ship, brightly lit and no thrills.

"I'm in a tricky position" said Mal as he untied the rope gag Jayne had used on the Fed "but you already knew that, I have a boat full of people making my life harder than it needs to be chief among them is a trigger happy alliance mole who likes to shoot girls" Mal approached menacingly "so I have a need for information, like what you told them and how close are they"

"and the captain being the generous sort was upset that he missed my birthday" Jayne smiled as he drew his bowie knife the blade sang as the tip of the blade became free from the scabbard "so he has given me the task of asking you, he was not specific as to how"

"you only need to scare him" mal whispered as he passed Jayne on his way out.

"pain is scary" Jayne responded

"just do it right" said Mal leaving through the shutter door

"do you have any idea how much trouble you in" asked the ferret

"never been in trouble with the law before" Jayne said sarcastically

"not like this" he said "this isn't just smuggling that crate"

"has a girl in it" Jayne smiled the ferret looked shocked "she's cute too not all there but who is these days"

"that girl is a precious commodity"

'now why would he say that'

"they will be coming after her long after you burry me they will be coming"

'idiot there's no dirt in space'

"I'm not gonna kill you Ferret" he smacked him on the leg with the flat of the blade "not yet"

"my name is not Ferret it is Lawrence, Lawrence Dobson"

"I don't care, now I'm gonna cut on you until you tell me what you told them"

"They know everything every name every record how many of you there are" Jayne could the lies he was spouting but he wasn't sure if he was masking the truth in the lie or not.

"see they don't know anything its written all over your face" Jayne stood up "I didn't even get to cut on you, I was gonna get me an ear too"

"I can see your not an idiot" 'ah now lets see this lawman try at manipulation' " so then lets talk about stuff you care about like money" he looked up to Jayne "she is worth allot of money I mean allot"

"how much" 'and how much are you willing to pay'

"enough for you to buy your own ship, a better one than this piece of crap" 'I like this ship'

"that would mean betraying the captain"

"yes, yes it dose"

"ok, lets talk figures"

(-)

Jayne arrived at his bunk with a wicked smile the fool thought that he would sell out the captain, he had wired over ten thousand credits into the company account for his freedom, he left a knife close enough for him to escape but he had dug through the man's luggage found all of his hidden weapons and took the ammo from all of them and replaced them with banks.

"this is the captain" the PA squawked "where passing another ship, looks to be reveres probably a raiding party, could be there headed somewhere in particular could be they've already hit someone and are full so everyone stay calm, if we run they will chase us coz that's there way, we are holding course so we will see what they do"

Jayne felt like he had been dunked in cold water, moving over to a rug on his wall he pulled it away to reveal his heavy ordinance the heaviest of witch was his beloved Vera, he grabbed the large magazine and loaded her, and he then pulled out a heavy armour piercing cannon and loaded a single shell into it. If he fired that inside it would go through three people and the bulkhead behind them, but that was a better death than what the reveres would do.

He then opened a draw and pulled out three hand grenades and placed them on the bed, he knew that if they boarded they would be damned near impossible to stop, he had never heard of a non military ship fighting off reveres before and he doubted that that would change anytime soon.

"they are holding course we're good"

Jayne practically collapsed on his bed and waited for the adrenalin rush to subside, he could feel his body shaking as the chemical bled from his system, it took a while for the shaking to subside and for him to regain his strength but as soon as he had he unloaded his weapons and stowed away his grenades.

"god I hope that's the closest I ever come to reveres again" he prayed

(-)

Jayne was laughing his head off with the rest of the crew minus Keylee as Mal told them of his rib on the doctor

"you are psychotic" Wash guffawed

"no you should have seen his face" said Mal wiping away a tear "I am a bad man"

"Keylee is fine though right" smiled Zoe

"yeah though I didn't expect her to heal so quickly, the boy knows what he is doing I'll give them that"

Before they could continue the console beeped

"where being hailed" said Wash as he spun around in his chair to face the console

"that would be Patience, put her up"

"well Mal never thought to hearing from you again"

"we may not have parted on the best of terms but that's in the past we're here for business, besides I hear your a mayor now"

"yes about that cargo your asking price is on the shallow side for something that valuable"

"its imprinted alliance hence the discount"

"I like your honesty Mal looks like we can do business, I'll upload coordinates for a rendezvous just outside of town"

"see you in the world" the console bleeped and communications closed.

No one said anything for about a minute no one even moved none of them could believe the balls on that woman.

"trap" said Jayne there was consensus between the four in the cock pit

"I believe that crone is gonna shoot me again"

"yeah, if she meant to pay yah she would have at least tried to haggle yah down some"

"just a little effort to hide it would have been nice" Mal got up and smacked an empty metal mug hard enough to bounce it of the wall

"she is going to shoot me again!"

"we don't have to deal with her" said Zoe trying to get his mind off his inevitable bullet wound

"yes we do"

"I have a plan I've been working on" said Jayne, they all turned to him with equal looks of disbelief and humour 'oh sure Jayne can't have a plan he's just the muscle' "why don't we set a trap for the trap, you know shoot her first"

"it is her turn" said Wash

"that won't get us paid Patience is a cunning old fox"

"we could try our luck..."

"our luck what luck, have you seen the luck we have had recently, any discernible pattern, you depend on luck and you end up penniless reliant on the Alliance for any make work they have that aint us" said Mal before he stormed off.

(-)

The planet of Whitefall was a midsized agricultural world its main export was beef, it was a mostly temperate environment and the landscape was mostly hilly. They landed half a click away from the rendezvous with a plan in mind Jayne was give orders and headed out with the mule he was told burry the cargo then meet them at the rendezvous point which he did he dropped the mule back at the ship before he caught up with Mal and Zoe.

"I burred them good" he said handing Mal one of the bars "the equipment is back on the boat" Jayne pulled out a transmitter and plugged it into his ear and began to test its frequencies strength "testing, testing Cap can you hear me"

"I'm standing right here"

"your coming through good and loud"

"that's because I'm standing right here"

"yeah but the transmitter" 'screw it' he thought as Mal began his explanation

"she will know we buried the cargo so she will try and charm the location from us, she will come from the east and have snipers there" he pointed to one ridge "and there" he pointed to the other, Jayne had figured as much when he first saw the location, even an armature could have spotted that. Mal turned to Jayne "feel like taking a walk around the park"

"you sure you don't want to back down and piss yourself like you did with Badger" the look from Mal was more than enough Jayne didn't want to be left behind on this rock

"walk soft I want Patience to think there still in place"

Jayne grunted and made his way into the trees, there was very little brush in the trees to slow him down so he made it to the first sniper nest quickly. The first sniper was young late teens early twenties, he wore a poncho over a jacket a pair of working brown trousers and boots, Jayne silently crept behind one of the bushes and planned how to take down, the boy was prone his eyes locked onto the scope when he suddenly jerked, Jayne paused concerned that he may have to put the boy down, when he moved over to bushes on the left of his position.

'no way he's fool enough' he was the boy began to piss in the bushes Jayne taking that opportunity quietly made his way over and waited behind the boy for him to stop before using the pommel of his knife to knock the boy out.

"should have pissed you pants kid" he muttered before moving off to the next position.

This sniper was older and should have learned to mind his surroundings but Jayne guessed that's what happens when you make a hunter or a poacher into a sniper, there so used to pray that don't shoot back that he didn't even know Jayne was there until he had been dragged away from his gun and knock out.

Jayne took up his position just as Patience and her posse rode up to meat Mal and Zoe.

"last sniper down" he saw Mal nod slightly and waited for the signal

"and you not gonna till I get two hundred in platinum" the transmitter squawked Jayne smiled as the time for violence drew ever closer

"its pure one hundred percent pure A grade protean, foodstuffs, vitamins immunization supplements. One of those could feed a family for a month" he saw a red bag tossed to Mal who caught it.

Jayne adjusted the position as Mal gave them directions to the cargo, he needed a better position to cover Patience properly and he wasn't sure of the rifle he was using.

"then head east about a mile you see where its been dug" Jayne shook his firing as it began to cramp on the smaller stock and trigger used for a much smaller hand than his own "I'd be obliged if you would ride out first" Mal's body language explained it all to Jayne "we both made out on this deal lets not complicate things" he saw Mal take the bag out of his duster and threw it back to Patience "got the money back no need for killing" 'Mal you need to stop being a pussy'

"we just gonna walk away sir" asked Zoe

"could be messy"

Jayne got back into a firing position he knew it was about to kick off

"that is quite a rifle" Jayne scoped the gaunt looking man in the top hat "boy must be your best shot to carry that" he saw the slight nod of the man and took aim "two-fry nice hat" that was the code Jayne gave the trigger a gentle squeeze the built sailed through the man's head in through one end and out through the other, he then used the commotion he caused to take out the driver of the ATV and another horse man he saw Zoe go down before taking out the man that did it he adjusted again and took down a man who gotten off his horse, he managed to get off two shots before the rifle jammed, then he heard Wash's panicked scream of

"Reveres incoming!" with no thought to the standoff occurring in front of him he made a dead sprint towards Mal

"Mal" he shouted slowing down as he came to the bottom of the hill "its Wash the gorram reveres they followed us"

"back to the ship double time?" Mal roared grabbing the rains of a near buy horse, it had been a while since Jayne had road but with those monsters incoming he reckoned he could just about sprout wings and fly if he needed to.

They road hard harder than any of them had road in there lives

"Where the hell are you guys" came Wash's panicked cry over the transmitter but they had no time to respond, they were too busy trying to get back home as they approached the ship there was a loud bang of a gun being fired and Mal looked about as happy as a bear with a tooth ache as he slapped the rump of the horse, he thundered up the ramp with Zoe and Jayne following on another shot a slight scream and it was finished, as Jayne boarded he saw the Fed dead at Mals feet with Mal bent down looking over him

"Jayne" he shouted the mercenary was more than happy to get rid of the Ferrets corpse tossing it out of the airlock and getting back inside before the doors closed behind him. All three of them barrelled into the cock pit

"how close" asked Mal

"just about spitting distance"

"get me a vid" he ordered Zoe

"how close do they need to be for those grapples"

"come on you dumb ass louse them"

"if everyone could please be quiet" he said trying to get into his Zen place or whatever "I need Keylee in the engine room please"

Before Ma could even ask Jayne was on his way to the infirmary he ran passed Inara as he jumped the steps leading up to the cockpit he almost knocked the Sheppard on his ass as he got to the infirmary

"Keylee we need you" the girl nodded, Jayne lifted her up bridal style and headed out but not before Inara arrived

"you three need to come with me" she said pulling on the doctor and his sister

"I think I can help Keylee out" said the Sheppard

"should I..." the doctor started

"take her and keep her safe" ordered the Sheppard before he followed behind Jayne and headed to the engine room, as they entered he gently put Keylee down.

"Keylee how we doing" the PA squawked "we're gonna need a little push here soon"

"you want full burn?" she asked tiredly

"not yet but get it ready"

"do you know where the press regulator is" she asked the Sheppard who looked like he was remembering something from years and years ago and pointed to the left of the spinning engine core "top of the class"

'even when she's got a hole in her she's bubbly"

"where ready for full burn on your mark"

"Keylee how'd you feel about pulling a crazy Ivan"

'a crazy what' Jayne looked to Keylee

"its on my bucket list" she looked up to Jayne "open the port jack control cut the hydraulics" she said pointing to a box "ok so its more simple that it looks" she said as he opened the box to reveal a mess of wires cobbled together with older or string, "pull out the pink wire" Jayne did as he was told "now plug it into the third socket from the centre"

"done"

"good now get ready to pull the big lever over there" Jayne nodded and made his way over to the grey hanging hydraulic lever

"I'm ready"

"ok where ready here" she said as she braced herself

Jayne felt the ship lurch into its turn then came the cry of

"NOW" from Wash Book flicked two witches and Jayne pulled the hydraulic lever until it locked into place, then the spinning core began to glow brighter and speed up it spin illuminating the whole compartment, Jayne felt the deck plates vibrate as the ship throttled up to full burn.

"Whoo!" Jayne screamed in joy they had done it they were home free, his hooting and hollering filled the ship, "whoo-hoo-hoo!" Jayne pumped his fist "yeah!"

"where good people, we're out of the woods" Mal's voice cracked over the PA

"that's my girl" said Keylee stroking the bulkhead, after he had calmed down Jayne lifted Keylee back up and brought her back to the infirmary to rest. Once that was done he met the Captain in the cockpit

"so what did you find out from our late friend the Fed" Mal asked not even turning to see if it was Jayne or not

"the ferret told me that the girls valuable to the Alliance" he said stepping into the cockpit fully "the girls a problem" he rubbed his chin as Mal made some adjustments to the course "he said that they would never stop looking for her, something special about her brain. I figure they either want her for her smarts or there really is something special about her brain not a doctor or one oh them mind thingies, went out his way to say Alliance brass like that means anything to me"

"funny how the law man got out of his cell aint it"

"not really" Jayne said "he played me ten thousand to rent my spare knife, though how he got out of the cell is anyone's guess, made sure he paid it into the ships account minus ten present finder's fee of course" Mal's hand twitched towards his gun "I also took all the live ammo out of his guns and left him with nothing but blanks" Jayne smiled "he couldn't even tell the difference in weight between live and banks"

Mal was stunned

"so that was the deal ten thousand for your knife"

"no the deal was twenty thousand, ten as a good will payment the rest when the Tams where apprehended"

"how come you didn't turn on me Jayne"

"money wasn't good enough"

"and when it is"

"That will make for an interesting day then"

"I imagine that it will"

Jayne smirked before heading to his bunk he had enough excitement for one day.


End file.
